LUDO

BandRockPop

Ludo's new rock opera EP, "Broken Bride," is an epic love story told through five tracks of genre-bending narrative. The band jams a record store's worth of influences into a 28-minute journey through time you'll want to take over and over again.

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Biography

"Our goal?" Andrew Volpe, Ludo's front-man, pauses and reflects in a very rare moment of silence. "To entertain people without making them dumber!"

Perhaps it's Volpe's way with words along with the band's commitment to achieving that goal that has made Ludo so successful in the short time they've been together. The band put out their self-titled album at the end of August 2003, having never played a show. Eleven songs were chosen for the record, ranging in theme from unrequited love to social isolation to high school mythology. All are united by clever, engaging, often hilarious lyrics and Volpe’s unique storytelling ability. Ludo immediately hit the road, playing coffee houses, open-mics, college campuses, and anywhere else people would listen. The album struck a chord with people and touring continued. Ludo brought their heavy-humored, high-energy rock show from New York to LA, selling albums at every stop. Before too long, Ludo was headlining clubs and colleges throughout the Midwest and Texas, playing to crowds that were decked out in Ludo cherries and screaming every word. "We didn't even realize how lucky we were until we started touring with other bands who couldn't believe how intense and devoted our fans were," says drummer Matt Palermo. "Everyone was saying 'cult following' and we didn't get it."

Things only got better as word about the band spread nationally. College radio and several regional commercial stations were responding to the album. Ludo was receiving national exposure through websites like Myspace and Purevolume and even the cable music network Fuse. The band appeared three times on "Daily Download" and their video for Hum Along was featured several times on Fuse programs - a first for an independent artist. "All of a sudden people were showing up in cities we'd never played," says bassist, Marshall Fanciullo. "We got recognized in a Baskin-Robbins in California our first time there. It was crazy."

After a year and a half, over 200 shows, and 3000 copies sold, it was time for a new record. But neither Ludo fans, nor the band members themselves could predict what came next. "We were writing a lot and one song stuck out to us the most. We started playing it live, and the fans really reacted," says Volpe. That song was Broken Bride. It's the story of a man whose wife dies in a car accident and all that he goes through to bring her back. He invents a time machine, which through a malfunction sends him back to the Jurassic period where he gets trapped in a cave surrounded by menacing dinosaurs. "People wanted to know what was next; they wanted to know what happened to the guy and so did we." The band put everything else aside and spent the summer of 2005 writing and recording what became the Broken Bride EP. "We let the story we were telling dictate everything - the songs, the music, the instrumentation." When it was said and done Ludo had created a rock opera - a love story that spanned from the beginning of time to the apocalypse. While Broken Bride was quite a departure from the previous Ludo release (with longer tracks, heavy-metal breakdowns and a heartfelt piano ballad), it still encompassed standard Ludo themes like adventure, fun, and quirkiness. Ludo fans welcomed the release with open arms, and Broken Bride helped expand the fan base even more. Music critics embraced the record as “a rock and roll adventure for the ages" and “a competitor for best EP of the year."

Ludo, which consists of Andrew Volpe (vocals/guitar), Tim Ferrell (guitar/vocals), Tim Convy (Moog/vocals), Marshall Fanciullo (bass), and Matt Palermo (drums/vocals) is based out of St. Louis, MO - or as they call it, "The Birthplace of Rock n' Roll" (Ludo is notorious for their loyalty to all things Chuck Berry, with whom they recently had the pleasure of sharing the stage). The band's success has not been without assistance. They boast one of the most ambitious and aggressive street teams on the independent music scene. The "Ludo Ninjas," a unit over 400-strong, span all across the country. Whether it's grassroots promotion, online activity, radio campaigns or holding program directors hostage, the Ludo ninjas are as much a part of Ludo as the cherries that hang from the "D" in the band's logo. As any St. Louis concert-goer will tell you, rarely can one leave a show without experiencing a "ninja attack."

Ludo shows no signs of relenting in their attack either. The touring continues and with it, songs for a new record. Convy remarks, "We made a record that makes people laugh and another record that makes people cry; with the new songs we want to do both... and everything in between!" And they just might.

Other Info

Cover band:

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Band Website

Lyrics

Hum Along

Written By: Andrew Volpe

You'll never hear this songYou'll never see the movie in my headBut you infest my sleep, and your figure creepsThrough my walls and hums above my bedI know your name, and that you're photogenic and tallBut I've never heard you talkAnd there's something about youThat stabs me right through

And I've only seen you once, at your graduationNo cinematic glow or soft rock soundtrackAnd I watched you move and breathe and cryAnd it felt so wrong

REPEAT CHORUS

Maybe you'd be kidnapped by piratesAnd they would take you to their hideoutAs pirates often doBut I'd find the secret mapAnd I would vigilante-bushwhackThrough the jungles of Peru

Just to save you and I'd take you north to MexicoWhere you would tell me your life story on the steps of a Mayan templeWhere we'd camp singing nonsense songs in 12 bars to the jaguars, until you'd sense meYour eyes convincing, and I would kiss you like a hero in the half-lightDryer sheets and peach shampoo, the smell of palm leaves, I'd sleep against youUntil the natives found us, but they would crown us king and queenAnd we could stay there, spend our days there, eating guava by the seaAnd I could understand your views and you could fall in love with me

SOLO

And while the silly human race talks to droids in outer-spaceWe grow old and laugh about this songAnd between the jungle and the stars, you sing nonsense songs in 12 bars to meAnd in my sleep I hum along

You'll never hear this songYou'll never see the movie in my head

Part II: Tonight's the Night

Written By: Andrew Volpe

Oh baby, baby, how I lost my mindTime is quite the killer when you're left behindThe airbag held you 'til the engine sleptAt home your pillow cooled while the willows wept.

Remember in the summer when I held your handon the southern shore, finding fossils in the sandOh baby, maybe someday you will find meon that beach beside you again.

REPEAT CHORUS

Here we go!

REPEAT CHORUS

I'm gonna save your life.

Part I: Broken Bride

Written By: Andrew Volpe

Fifteen years I raged against the constant C, the speed of lightthe diagrams and haunted sleep, frozen sheets, in bed, my dreamsyour garden grave, I'd climb inside, hold your bones and slowly diethe cooling space inside your chest, my broken bride, you never breathedagain.Circuits fail, the cosmic strings like rubber bands, I lose controlthey snap, I fall through mist to mud against my face, the taste of bloodthe world is strange, the stinking earth and giant treesthrough heavy air a demon shrieks, what have I done, what hell is waitingfor me?

CHORUSI crashed before the birth of ChristPterodactyls swarmingYou died in 1989Just wanna get back to that morning in MayKeep you in bed, never escapeHolding you close, oh oh oh-oh-ohListen to you breathe the evening glowof fading light and cooling space.

Like motor oil down my throat, I couldn't speak, I dropped the phonethe burning flares, the steam, your hair, bits of glass, they sparkledeverywherelike winter nights, the stars, the ice, all intertwined to hold and keeplike petals pressed in sheets, making love to moonlight in our sleep.And now above the pits of tar, in a cave I hidethat massive, screaming thing with wings of reaper's cloth, it's standingjust outsideI must get to my machine, I will bring you back to lifefix your ruined lungs, I'll undo what Time has done!

REPEAT CHORUS

I carve your sweet name into the cave, I'm sure to dieAll my strife has been in vain, the glaciers come and wash my words away.

Set List

As a full-time touring rock band Ludo is typically asked to play 30-60 minute sets (depending on opening or headlining slots). Original Material includes songs from their self-titled full-length as well as new material. Covers are played sparingly and added to a set just for fun from time to time.